What's the difference between good and bad DPS

I've played pretty much every advanced class now. Some as DPS, some as tanks, some as healing, but something I noticed when working on my Assasin is that she is very good at butchering stuff, both PVE and PVP wise. In PVP she regularly gets the enemy butchering medals, and I've noticed she has the easiest time getting that 2.5K hit medal. My sentinel, despite trying his best, never manages to get reliable high damage hits, but scores excellent maintained damage, and has a pretty good time in PVE no matter which companion he teams with. I recently tried the Merc Unique DPS tree, however, and it felt lackluster. She goes all out, and she overheats. Managing her heat efficiently often involves hitting rapid shots every third turn, and her best attack doesn't seem that powerful.

Anyway, those are my observations. But I actually don't know anything about what would be considered powerful, and what would be considered terrible.
So, my question is this: What do you consider to be the difference between good DPS, and bad DPS?

Bad dps doesn't use the right rotation. Bad dps doesn't use CC's effectively. Bad dps isn't situationally aware of their surroundings. Bad dps doesn't focus targets. To name a few.

Situational awareness is the main factor, I think. One can have a perfect tunnel-vision rotation, yet no ability to track the flow of the encounter. I'll take the guy who CCs, interrupts and dodges enemy fire over the guy who tooooootally rips damage meters on the training dummy.

Situational Awareness is the biggest thing. Anyone can mash the attack button. A good DPS will know when to break of the main target and get the adds, when to interrupt (unless you are a commando), pop a healing proc (Sentinel Watchman FTW), when to stay in the fire and knowing when to run out (there are times when you need to stay in). Having never done an MMO before I am glad I started a Sentinel first. I learned a lot about DPSing. Its harder then it looks.

Good dps is the one the boss targets if the tank dies.
Bad dps is the last one left alive after a wipe.

Sure there's CC, staying alive, not standing in fire, etc, but in order to actually top the charts throughtout the fight, you have to stay alive. If you still don't know the difference, get your group to setup MOX dps parser. That should tell you whos on top and whos on the bottom of the list.

If you are hitting enrage timers, blame the people at the bottom of the list.

Good dps is the one the boss targets if the tank dies.
Bad dps is the last one left alive after a wipe.

Sure there's CC, staying alive, not standing in fire, etc, but in order to actually top the charts throughtout the fight, you have to stay alive. If you still don't know the difference, get your group to setup MOX dps parser. That should tell you whos on top and whos on the bottom of the list.

If you are hitting enrage timers, blame the people at the bottom of the list.

I have yet to see any good republicans.

Dps isn't always about whose on top. As long as people aren't really dragging behind compared to others, the other factors play more importance, unless it's a straight up dps race type of encounter. Really, it's about the complete package, but some fights require more of one thing compared to another.

Edit: Also, forgot to mention, that the last dps left alive doesn't mean he did the lowest amount. He could have easily used an aggro dump at the right time.

Quote:
Originally Posted by battlebug

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Dps isn't always about whose on top. As long as people aren't really dragging behind compared to others, the other factors play more importance, unless it's a straight up dps race type of encounter. Really, it's about the complete package, but some fights require more of one thing compared to another.

Edit: Also, forgot to mention, that the last dps left alive doesn't mean he did the lowest amount. He could have easily used an aggro dump at the right time.

Well generally people who are on the top of the meters know what they are doing. If you are standing in fire, chances are you will have to self heal or blow some CDs which could cost you valuable seconds to lay on more dps on the boss. If you straight up neglect mechanics of a fight, that would lead to your death or a wipe of the raid. So when I'm saying you are topping the charts, it is assuming you are following the mechanics of the fight.

If you are referring to interrupts or CC's, my sorc has those as instant abilities. It's now hard to CC the cats in Bone thrasher or interrupt Sorno's full auto ability. I think the only fights where I don't compete are the puzzle fights generally as it's simply solving the puzzle vs killing anything (save the last part of EC).

Even with aggro dumps, if the tank goes down the boss beelines it to me. You should assume the healers don't generate enough threat to pass the dps. All factors equal, all dps should be using their aggro dump at the appropriate times or on cd. That still leaves who generates more damage on the table as the one next on the aggro list. Any of the stealth dps classes that can truly do an aggro reset aren't pulling enough dps on the meters atm to be a factor.

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The statements and opinions expressed on these websites are solely those of their respective authors and do not necessarily reflect the views, nor are they endorsed by Bioware, LucasArts, and its licensors do not guarantee the accuracy of, and are in no way responsible for any content on these websites.